We are no longer allowed to agree on what a common American culture represents; that’s “raciss”. As a non-WASP, I’ll concede the American culture was a WASP morality and ethic coupled with independence and the corresponding self-reliance. It simply doesn’t function with other populations that don’t assimilate or share those views (in a general sense). The idea of allowing non-taxpayers to vote would horrify the Founding Fathers, as would the concept of feeding/clothing/housing those that refused to work.
Tossing those basic ideas would destroy any system similar to that instituted by the Founding Fathers; as in Western Europe, it also led to a VERY negative birthrate among “Americans”.
Do we represent freedom and democracy abroad like we used to? Are we really a constitutional republic that goes by some rule of law? Hahaha Are we Christian? Are we Capitalist and about free markets? Who are we?
There is a reason why Norman Rockwell is controversial today: https://www.wbur.org/news/2018/05/17/rockwell-shuffletons-barbershop-on-display
There is a reason why the National Archives publish a warning (Harmful Language precautionary statement) before presenting the US Constitution and Bill of Rights: https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/08/national-archives-issues-harmful-content-warning-on-constitution-all-other-founding-documents/
Culture is conveyed via: national and racial identity, ones community, religion, and family. None of these structures today work. Racial identity is all together bad unless it's a special group (anything non-white). Religion is relegated to some ritual people do on Sundays but what is said there ends as soon as folks step outside the church and if the government orders them to close their doors because of Covid, they follow orders. Family is broken with near 50% divorce rates and the single parent home, LQBTQIA+ marriages that undermine the purpose of marriage and family in the first place. National identity hardly exists, nationalism and patriotism is seen negatively (seen akin to racism) and today you actually have nationally elected leaders prideful of the badge “global citizen.”
So how is culture conveyed? #1 Hollywood, #2 public education, then music, social media and a little bit the news. And what culture do they teach us? That culture is a consumption product, symbols that you purchase and hang around your neck in some tacky display of self identity.
What you have today in America is an “anti-culture.”
Culture is the fine art of discrimination. Culture teaches us values, and these values make us have value judgments. Culture teaches us that something is more desirable than another. Culture teaches us who we are, where we came from, what we have in common, and what we value. Today we teach how we are different and what we don't have in common, how everything is relative (moral right and wrong, beauty, etc), that European culture and it's values need rejected (everything Euro, white, male and Christian is seen critically).
How can you have culture in a heterogeneous society?
If you are German (this is a Western society issue, not just US) and you want to bring in millions of Muslims because of a shrinking population, how do you maintain your own cultural identity in the long run? How does eating pork, drinking beer, nudity, freedom of speech, a secular society and justice system, womens rights and religous freedom share the stage with Sharia law and Islamic traditions and values?
America, driven by corporate greed and political corruption (Congress is essentially for sale to the highest bidder), has been the biggest driving force behind globalization. America today doesn't know who she is, what she believes in, what right and wrong is, or where to head. All we have in common is an insatiable apatite for consumption - and that isn't culture.